with a foreign power. There was no need of inflaming him, he was the first to demand an exemplary punishment; not a day, not an hour would he be moved by the youth of a culprit who had been so dear to him; he thought only of his crime, and signed his death-warrant without hesitation. If he spared the Duke de Bouillon, it was but in order to gain Sedan. He pardoned his brother, the Duke d'Orleans, but dishonored him and deprived him of all power in the State. Owing to a rumor proceeding from a servant of Fontrailles, and which the memoirs of Fontrailles fully confirm,[1] his suspicions rested on the queen,[2] and he could never be persuaded from the opinion that in this, as in the affair of Chalais, Anne of Austria was allied with Monsieur. What would he have said if he
- ↑ Relation de Fontrailles, Coll. Petitot, vol. liv., p. 438: "When I was alone with M. de Thou (at Carcassonne, after the Spanish voyage) he suddenly spoke to me of the journey which I had just made, which surprised me greatly, as I thought it had been concealed from him. When I asked him how he had learned it, he frankly told me in confidence that he knew it from the queen, who had it from Monsieur. I admit that I did not think her so well informed, although I was not ignorant that her majesty had earnestly wished that a cabal might be formed in the court, and that she had contributed all in her power to it, as she could not but profit by it."
- ↑ Archives of foreign affairs, France, vol. cii. Chavigny to Richelieu, October 24: "The king gave the queen a bad reception yesterday. He is still greatly incensed against her, and constantly talks about it."
me, 'What a leap M. le Grand has made,' which he repeated two or three times." Another letter of the same date says: "I think that the sooner the Cardinal Mazarin comes here, the better it will be, for I perceive in truth that his majesty has need of consolation, and that his heart is very full." Letter of July 17th, De Noyers to Richelieu, concerning the arrangements of the king: "The king has said to us privately that Sedan is well worth an indemnity, but that he will never pardon M. le Grand, and that he will abandon him to the judges to act towards him according to their conscience." Letter of July 19th: "The king has entertained the thought of saving the life of M. de Bouillon in order to gain Sedan, but of leaving M. le Grand to his fate."
